Tag Archives: consumer spending

U.S. Already in Recession?

Financial FAQs The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for the US ticked down by 0.1% in May 2025 to 99.0 (2016=100), after declining by 1.4% in April (revised downward from –1.0% originally reported). The LEI has fallen by 2.7% in … Continue reading

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Tariffs Trump Consumer Spending

Financial FAQs “Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for May 2025, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $715.4 billion, down 0.9 percent (±0.5 percent) from the previous month, … Continue reading

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California Can’t Be Bullied

Popular Economics Weekly Governor Gavin Newsom today announced that California has officially overtaken Japan to become the world’s fourth-largest economy, according to newly released data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). April, 2025 LATimes The Trump … Continue reading

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Immigrants Make a Difference

Popular Economics Weekly “Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 139,000 in May, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.2 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment continued to trend up in health care, leisure and hospitality, … Continue reading

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What’s the Fed Saying?

The Mortgage Corner “In considering the outlook for monetary policy, participants agreed that with economic growth and the labor market still solid and current monetary policy moderately restrictive, the committee was well positioned to wait for more clarity on the … Continue reading

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Consumers Not So Confident

Financial FAQs “Consumer confidence improved in May after five consecutive months of decline,” said Stephanie Guichard, Senior Economist, Global Indicators at The Conference Board. “The rebound was already visible before the May 12 US-China trade deal but gained momentum afterwards.” Conference … Continue reading

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Manufacturing Not the Problem

Popular Economics Weekly “In April, U.S. manufacturing activity slipped marginally further into contraction after expanding only marginally in February. Demand and output weakened while input strengthened further, conditions that are not considered positive for economic growth.” ISM Manufacturing FREDIndustrialproduction U.S. … Continue reading

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Trump’s Manufacturing Scam

Financial FAQs “Why? It’s not like we’re a small country or full of stupid people. No, it’s the takeover of the economists and bankers. Simply put, modern American law is oriented towards ensuring very high returns on capital to benefit … Continue reading

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Stopping the Steal

Popular Economics Weekly “We were losing hundreds of billions of dollars with China. Now we’re essentially not doing business with China. Therefore, we’re saving hundreds of billions of dollars. Very simple.” Donald Trump NYTimes Why would Trump mouth such an … Continue reading

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Whose Economy Is It Now?

Popular Economics Weekly “Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 177,000 in April, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.2 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment continued to trend up in health care, transportation and warehousing, … Continue reading

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